The present invention generally concerns computer-aided design systems, and more particularly concerns a system and method for manipulating respective product components during the course of producing a computer-aided design.
With the onset of total pervasiveness of computers, as well as the introduction of personal computers such as the IBM PC, having considerable power and flexibility, usable computer-aided design (CAD) systems has become One particular system which is well known to those of ordinary skill in the art is the "AutoCAD" system, which a registered trademark of AutoDESK, Inc.
Often times, the task of a design engineer or the like operating a CAD system involves selecting components to be assembled in a given design. Thus, the design will incorporate potentially both "original" drawings of the designer and commercially available components. Frequently, the commercially available components are illustrated and described, with dimensional detail, in catalogs of products from various suppliers. A catalog will typically relate to a family of products or related families of products comprising a particular product type. Within each family, there may be numerous choices, such as to type or size, which must be selected by the designer in the course of tile design process.
As typically presently occurs, selection of a commercially available component which is described in a catalog requires transference of the dimensional information of the selected component into the design field of the computer-aided design system. Since the exact placement of component parts in a CAD system is crucial for maintaining accuracy within the design, the need to maintain positional accuracy is self-evident. Likewise, the task of manually transferring dimensional data from the catalog to the computer system can result in a significant time effort, not to mention the prospect of errors during data entry or manipulation. As is well understood to those of ordinary skill in the art, small errors on the design board can manifest themselves as large scale problems at a later time, especially if undetected until such later stages.
The foregoing transference problem is self-evident for even a single component, but real world practicalities are such that there may be dozens, if not in fact hundreds or thousands of potential components from various sugar, pliers which must be considered, and possibly entered into the computer. Thus, the significance of the initial problem is magnified by sheer numbers.
Furthermore, the typical prior art methodology of laying in outside dimensions of a selected component fails to provide internal details of the component structure. In effect, a considerable amount of useful information is left behind "in the catalog," and would be that much more of a burden to enter into the computer, if even possible to do so in a reasonable fashion.